


There's always a first time for making things right

by Skylocked



Series: With your lips upon my lips [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Kerberos Mission, also shiros vision of lance is biased, keith is an angel, memes and pop culture refs because author is trash, shiro needs to stop, so much pining, teenagers being awkward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-25 00:10:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10752654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylocked/pseuds/Skylocked
Summary: "You know, babe" Lance says as he presses ever so close against the solid form of his partner of now years as they lay tangled together in their shared bed."An exasperating but brilliant scientist once told me..."Shiro tenses around him in the way he always does when Lance brings the eccentric genius that was Slav up and Lance can't help but chuckle at his husband's antics. Slav still remains a sour spot for Shiro to this day."He once told me that in all the realities he ever saw where you and I meet, we always ended up like this." Lance finishes and turns in Shiro's arms propping himself up on his elbows to meet his husband's puzzled look pausing for the question that is sure to come."...like what?" Shiro asks brows knitted together in a quizzical frown. Lance smirks at him playfully leaning forward to close whatever distance remained between them."Likethis"Shiro rolls them over trapping the younger man beneath him and leans down to steal a kiss. Just another one or two or three in the hundredths that they've shared throughout the years"With your lips upon my lips"





	There's always a first time for making things right

**Author's Note:**

> Wow guys... look at me making my debut in the world of VLD fic writing with Shance.  
> When a ship makes me itch to start writing, that's when you know Im in deep.  
> Anyway, I've been dying to write for this pair for a while now, especially after reading almost all the amazing things everyone in the Shance fam has shared here. And I am terribly sorry if this sucks because I really have no idea what Im doing but I hope I can at least make some of you smile with this little bit of Shance being dorks in mutual pining with each other.  
> And im a coward so this hasn't really been edited/beta-ed by anyone because I... can't but I hope you can read past the amateur mistakes and sometimes awkwardness of my writing and find this little drabble enjoyable.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for taking your time to read this and have a wonderful morning, afternoon, night, or whatever time of day it might be for you!  
> -  
> Sky

\-----------------------------------------------------

Shiro had no idea what he was doing when he decided that pulling Lance in for a kiss out of nowhere, in the middle of the -thankfully- empty classroom, was the best way to approach the subject of his ridiculously growing not-a-crush on Lance. All he knew was that it felt like the right thing to do at the moment. After all, it wasn’t that he has been pining like a lost school boy over the younger cadet, as Keith had so bluntly put it days ago, it's just that… yeah ok, he has been low-key pining over Lance for months. But really, it couldn't be helped. From the moment he had laid eyes on the other boy Shiro had been done for. So he wasn’t really at fault for the things he was feeling. Lance was just so… _breathtaking_ was the only word Shiro felt accurate enough to convey what he thought of Lance.

Lance with his soft-looking brown hair that Shiro might really want to run his fingers through. Lance with his sun kissed skin that just seemed to glow when the light hit it at just the right angles. Lance with his easy smiles and contagious laugh. Lance with his impossibly-deep blue eyes that sparkled with mischief and wonder and a determination to prove the world his worth.

Yeah, Shiro hadn't stood a chance from the start. Granted, it had taken him a ‘goddamn long time’ - Keith’s words- to realize that he had the biggest fucking crush on Lance in the universe, but still…

So it wasn’t surprising when instead of approaching the issue like the almost adult he was, Shiro had taken to avoiding his crush at all costs and just… look longingly from afar. There was no way Lance would give him the time of day anyway. Lance was bright and beautiful and always surrounded by people seeking his attention. He was so easy going and open and made his friends laugh (and his officers groan) and Shiro was…

Well, Shiro was well-liked. Yes, he was famous at the garrison as one of the top of his class and youngest to make it into the fighter pilot program. He was pretty popular with peers and teachers alike. And he wasn’t gonna lie, he was physically attractive too, if the _out-of-this-world-body_ and _what-a-hot-piece-of-meat_ hushed comments whispered about him as he passed rooms and hallways were to be believed…

People admired him and looked up to him, but they never really looked _at him_ … except for Keith, who knew better, and then Lance.

When they had first talked, Lance hadn’t been fazed or awestruck, or intimidated by Shiro at all. He’d talked to him like an equal, as if the senior officer vs. cadet rank didn't matter earning himself a scolding from Iverson. ( _That is no way to talk to a superior, cadet! Salute!_ ) But Shiro hadn’t minded in the least. It was surprising and refreshing all the same and it left Shiro yearning for more.

From there on, Shiro kept seeing Lance everywhere, no matter where he was or what he was doing, Lance just seemed to always be a presence in his peripheral vision. Keith had told him it was all in his head and that Lance just seemed to be everywhere because Shiro kept stalking the other boy. Shiro had spluttered that he wasn’t and that Keith was seeing things where there were none, just like his cryptids. Keith had kicked him and stormed off, and Shiro had sported the bruise on his shin for days. Not a fun time that had been.

The point was that Shiro was going insane and he didn’t know why. Why did Lance affect him so much? Why did he feel like bolting whenever Lance tried to approach him? Why did his gut twist when he’d catch Lance smiling and laughing at a pretty girl? Why had he stepped in between Lance and one of his classmates when said classmate had cornered Lance in a empty room pinning the boy violently against the wall?

Ok that one was easy to explain really, Shiro had told himself. He was just helping a fellow classmate in need of assistance. Now, punching the guy and leaving him with a broken nose had most definitely been a bit too much, but Shiro hadn’t cared at the time. The guy deserved it after insinuating that Lance was… _just a pretty face only good for sucking cock_. Shiro cringed at the memory, yeah, the dick had deserved the bloody nose.

So ok, Shiro knew deep down what the answer to his questions was, did not mean he liked it one bit. It made him feel nervous and uncertain, and Shiro did not handle uncertainty well. He didn’t enjoy not having control over his own feelings and when he was around Lance, his cool evaporated like water in the desert before the rainfall even touches the ground. And so he avoided Lance, pretended to be busy if Lance ever approached him, and declined any attempt from Keith to get him to hang around the younger student.

In hindsight, that was probably the dumbest and surest way to get your crush to think you want nothing to do with them, so Shiro really had no one to blame but himself for the way Lance started acting around him whenever they had to be in the same room at the same time. And Shiro had been so blind to it, trying to keep his own feelings at bay he had missed the way Lance seemed to shrink trying to make himself as small as possible. How his shoulders slumped and he suddenly went quiet. Or the way he avoided looking at Shiro only acknowledging the older teen when necessary. Keith, bless him, had tried pointing this out to Shiro a few times, but Shiro, smart as he was, had only waved him off coming up with a different excuse for Lance’s behavior around him each time.

And thus it was that when Shiro finally accepted his feelings towards Lance he also realized how much of dick he had been to the teen all this time, hence the situation he found himself in right now…

\------------------------------------------

“Sir...what?” Lance is looking up at him, confusion clear as day in his eyes. Shiro still has his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“I… Lance, I'm sorry” Shiro says worrying at his lower lip. He is pretty sure his face is still red all over from the kiss.

Lance flinches and steps back as if burned by some invisible fire. He looks away and then down at his hands, fists clenched at his sides.

“...you’re apologizing… for what?” He looks back up at Shiro, his eyes burning with hurt and barely contained anger. Shiro knows Lance has the right to be, after the way Shiro has been treating him for months, Shiro wouldn't blame Lance for hating him. The thought sends a painful jolt to his stomach and he can’t help hoping that he isn’t too late.

“...sorry for kissing me out of the blue? Sorry for pretending you give a damn about me when you’ve made it pretty clear that you don’t? Sorry for what, _Sir_?” Lance continues, his voice laced with all the venom he can muster and angry tears forming at the corners of his eyes. Shiro wants to wipe them away, wants to stop them from coming, wants to just… kiss them dry, but he can’t. He is frozen in place by the sting of lance's words. He knows he fucked up and fucked up big time.

“Lance, please… don’t” He pleads softly and small not even sure that Lance has heard him.

“Don’t what, Sir?” So he did. Shiro flinches visibly,

“...don’t call me that, please”

Shiro can’t make himself look at Lance. His heart feels constricted and his lungs feel like he can’t get enough air into them. There’s a lump in his throat that threatens to suffocate him.

“Sorry sir, can’t do… you’re my superior and I’m just… I’m just a subordinate here.” Lance’s voice breaks a little at the last of his words and Shiro has to look at him now. He has to make Lance see that he is not just another cadet in Shiro’s eyes, that his worth is not measured by any ranks he could possibly hold. Lance has to know that he means more to Shiro than Shiro ever thought possible. But he won’t know if Shiro doesn't start speaking… like, right now. The Keith inside his head is groaning at him in exasperation. The Keith not in his head would too.

“Lance, that’s not. You’re not, you’re not just a subordinate… you’re… you’re Lance” Shiro says and now he is the one groaning inwardly. Of all the things to say…

Lance fixes him with a look still between anger, confusion, and hurt and Shiro has to force himself to hold his gaze.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lance asks crossing his arms in front of his chest defensively. He is still looking at Shiro expectantly, his brows creasing into an ever deeper frown. Shiro wants to smooth it away.

_Patience yields focus_ , he repeats in his mind.

“It means” Shiro takes a deep breath. “It mean’s that you’re an incredible person, you’re just so… “ He has to take a second to gather his wits about him which feels impossible what with his stomach twisting and untwisting and the thunderous beating of his heart deafening him and all, but he is nothing short of determined.

“...you’re so amazing and kind, and funny… and… and beautiful and you matter, a lot. You’re so important Lance… you… you matter to me.” Shiro finishes in a rush feeling like he has just run a long marathon at full speed.

Lance goes still, hands falling to his sides, but his eyes are wide in surprise. He doesn't say anything for what feels like hours and Shiro is starting to think maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. “Listen, I….” Shiro is about to apologize for running his mouth when Lance finally responds.

“Shiro… I…you.. what?... I thought you hated me?...all this time, I was so sure… you...you think _I’m beautiful?_ ”

Lance is fidgeting with the hem of his sleeves, a blush creeping up on his face, his eyes darting from Shiro’s face to his own hands and back to Shiro’s face. He looks hopeful but still like he is struggling to reconcile Shiro’s words with his actions of the past few months.

“I...well, yes? I mean, yes, of course I think you’re beautiful but that’s not…”

“ _Ithinkyourebeautifultoo!_ ” Lance blurts in rapid fire and in a matter of seconds his hands fly to his mouth and his eyes grow ever wider, face exploding into deep shades of scarlet. Shiro is left dumbfounded, mouth agape, blood slowly making its way up from his neck to his cheeks, nose ears and everything else.

“Oh god… I’m… I mean” Lance is mumbling behind his hands.

“...Thanks?” Shiro offers scratching the back of his neck. How did things get from point A to...wherever they’re at right now?

“So um…” Lance continues, blue eyes full of something Shiro can’t name but sets his heart aflutter. “...you don’t hate me then?…” The younger boy asks timidly..

“No, of course not!” Shiro retorts with a bit more force than necessary.

“Lance I never… no, I don’t hate you I…. “ And here goes nothing, Shiro thinks readying himself to jump into the metaphorical river that is his awkward attempt at a confession.

“I like you. I like you a lot…”

There, he’s said it. Its out in the open, he can finally rest in peace (pieces more like)… except he can’t because Lance is once again quiet and not looking at him at all and _oh gods, please just say something?_

“You..what?” Lance squeaks, voice strained by the effort to keep his cool. He is looking at Shiro like he’s grown three heads, four arms, and probably horns too though...

“I like you, Lance” Shiro repeats, the words coming easier now that he’s said them once...twice, and he is surprised to find that his heart is no longer beating erratically and his breathing has normalized to a degree. He still feels nervous and still has that feeling of walking on thin rope high above ground making him dizzy, like he is about to fall at any moment, but he does feel somewhat steadier too. It’s a strange contradiction but he doesn't have the mind to analyze it, not when Lance is still looking at him like he is trying to pull the biggest prank of the universe and the cameras will suddenly appear everywhere and _just kidding! You’ve been punk’d!!_ So he will say it again, and again and again until Lance believes him. At this point Shiro doesn’t even care whether Lance reciprocates his feelings or not, he just wants Lance to know that Shiro doesn’t hate him. Never has, never will.

“I know you don’t believe me. I know I haven’t given you any reason to believe me, but I do. I like you, and I know I’ve been...uh… I’ve been an asshole to you and I'm sorry for that. I never meant to make you think I hated you… I just… I know it’s not a valid excuse and I really am sorry… but I just didn’t know how to...er…. How did Keith put it?...” Shiro scratches his nose in a display of embarrassment. He’s already made a fool out of himself in front of Lance so really he has nothing more to lose, and to hell with his dignity, or at least whatever was left of it…

“...handle my biggest fucking crush on you.”

Shiro offers Lance a shy smile and Lance actually nods in his direction. The boy in front of him seems to not know whether to cry or to laugh and honestly Shiro can relate.

“You had a crush on me?” Lance asks incredulous and Shiro nods before the words actually process in his too-muddled-by-emotion brain. Lance said _had_..as in, the past tense of _have_ … as in… he thinks Shiro is not still crushing hard on him…

“I did.. I do, I still do… Lance, I have the biggest fucking crush on you… probably since the first day I met you.”

“Probably!?” Lance hiccups, lips curving into the tiniest of smiles. But, a smile is a smile no matter how small, Shiro thinks. _Progress_.

“I mean… yes?” Shiro smiles back sheepishly. “I know… I’m kind of slow about these things, but I’m not lying when I say that the first time I saw you I think I saw stars and the world just kinda faded and all I could see was you. And I thought… how can anyone this beautiful be real?”

Shiro pauses to take a deep breath and make sure his heart is still beating inside his chest. Lance is looking at him with a glow to his eyes that makes Shiro hopeful, once again, that maybe he is not the only one ill with feelings.

“And then you talked to me and you… you saw me, not just the hero that everyone makes me out to be or the uh… young prodigy that teachers claim that I am. You saw me, just me, and I… well… I think that’s when I fell for you.”

Lance stares at him wide eyed and Shiro stares back and they both just stand there awkwardly staring at each other for a bit until all of a sudden Shiro has an armful of Lance enveloping him in the tightest and warmest of hugs he’s received in a long time. Shiro tries to return the hug with as much warmth as he is getting and as he recalls that maybe, just maybe, Keith might have been right about this whole ordeal and Lance actually does like him back, but the other boy hasn’t really confirmed anything so Shiro is still unsure so he doesn’t push for anything more than.

Lance lets go of him and Shiro finds himself missing the boy’s warmth immediately.

“Shiro… did you know that you really are an idiot?” Lance is saying with the biggest and brightest of smiles crowning his face. Shiro wants to see him smile like this every day.

“I… “ Shiro stutters but Lance silences him with a shake of his head

“No, listen to me before you dare say any other word” Lance retorts getting ahold of both of Shiro’s hands with his and Shiro could cry because Lance is just so warm and he hadn’t realized until now just how much he’s been wanting to hold those hands. They really are as soft as they look. Shiro just nods in Lance’s direction, his gaze drifting low to catch a glimpse of their joined hands.

“You really are a huge idiot because hello, here I am doing my darnedest trying to impress you, trying to get you to even look my way and getting heartbroken, _don’t look at me like that_ , every time you… every time you avoided me or didn’t even acknowledge my existence and all the while there you are fucking pining over this piece of ass? Really Shiro? _What even are you?_ ” Lance finishes releasing Shiro’s hands to place them on either side of his face squishing his cheeks together.

“An idiot sandwich” Shiro replies without missing a beat and Lance just blinks at him before bursting into joyous laughter. And Shiro could, in all seriousness, die right now and die happy knowing that he’s managed to make the object of his affections laugh in such a way. It fills him with such warmth to be the cause of such glee because damn, Shiro would give an arm and a leg to make Lance laugh like this every single day of his life. And oh boy is Shiro lost...he is so lost now, if he hadn’t been before, which he is pretty certain he was, from the first day.

“Jesus Shiro!” Lance wheezes between breaths. “You can’t just…you can’t just _meme at me!_ It isn’t fair! I’m supposed to be angry at you… but how can I when you’re just… you’re just so… “

“Im just so?” Shiro nudges gently, his eyes and smile soft.

“So wonderfully amazing” Lance finishes and he isn’t laughing anymore but his smile remains, open and inviting and so bright that Shiro isn’t sure he won’t end up going blind staring directly into the sun that Lance’s smile is. But either way, were he to lose his sight, it would all be worth it. So so worth it, because having Lance’s smile directed at him is just about the best thing in the world.

And then suddenly Lance is pulling him forward into a new kiss; lips meet lips and Shiro has to revise his definition of what constitutes the best thing in the world because he is sure that this just took the trophy home.

Shiro wraps his arms around Lance after the initial shock of being kissed as passed, and he kisses back trying to match Lance’s enthusiasm with his own. And holy everything, he is kissing Lance, and Lance is kissing him and now he is pretty sure that his crush likes him back, like… really likes him back, and Shiro can’t really believe that this is happening right now. He opens his eyes just as Lance breaks their kiss to catch a breath and the other boy is looking at him with such adoration in his sparkling blue eyes that Shiro wonders what he must have done in another reality to be deserving of such affections. It must have been something really damn amazing because he is sure only something so big could have earned him Lance returning his feelings in this reality.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for so so sooooo long” Lance says a happy laugh bubbling out him.

“Same” Shiro returns as he leans forward to place a tender kiss to Lance’s cheek just because he can.

Lance only yelps in surprise once before he is smiling softly at him while holding a hand to the spot on his cheek that Shiro just kissed.

“Does this mean that you want to like… uh… date me or something?” Lance says faltering a bit at the end of his question. A nervous quiver apparent in his features.

“Something like that, yes” Shiro responds taking Lance’s hand in his to kiss it. He just really likes the feeling of Lance’s skin against his lips, ok?

“May I?” Shiro asks his voice low and deep and Lance swallows hard as his body leans ever so slightly towards the taller boy in front of him.

“May you…?” Lance’s voice carries just above a breathless whisper.

“Court you” Shiro fills in and he can’t help the way time seems to stop for a moment as he waits for Lance’s reply even though he is almost certain of what the answer will be. Which still doesn’t stop his body from tensing in anticipation and his breath from hitching when he sees Lance’s lips move ready to speak. But it appears to Shiro that he hasn’t been the only one holding his breath when before saying anything Lance releases the air he has been holding very slowly as he gives Shiro a definite answer.

“Yes, _please_ ”

\-----------------------------------------------------


End file.
